I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack
group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing
Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraftwhile landing) She told me we are going to attack
Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that
all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and taskedto specific aircraft, bases, carriers,
missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her why she is telling me this.

Her answer was really amazing...

She started in the Marines and after 8 years her
term was up. She had served on a smaller Marine carrier, and found out through a friend knew
there was an opening for a junior grade LSO in a trainingposition on a supercarrier. She used the reference
and the information and applied for a transfer to the United States Navy. Since she had experience
landing F-18Cs and Cobra Gunships, and an unblemished combat record, she was ratcheted
into the job, successfully changing from the Marines to the Navy. Her role is still aligned with the
Marines since she generally is assigned to liason with the Marine units deploying off her carrier group.

Like most Marines and former Marines, she is largely
apolitical. The fact is, most Marines are trigger pullers and most trigger pullers couldn't care
less who the President is. They simply want to be the tip of the sword when it comes to defending
the country. She voted once in her life and otherwise was always in some forward post on the water during
election season.

Something is wrong with the Navy and the Marines
in her view. Always ready to go in harms way, Marines rarely ever question unless it's a matter
of tactics or honor. But something seems awry. Junior and senior officers are starting to grumble,
roll their eyes in the hallways. The strain of deployments is beginning to hit every jot and
tittle of the Marines and it's beginning to seep into the daily conversation of Marines and Naval officers
in command decision.

"I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval
officer", she said. "But we're all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen
at the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of XOs and other
officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight operations. Today, orders just
come down from the mountaintop and there's no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing
it. I have seen more than one senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find
out that he has been replaced. That's really weird. It's also really weird because everyone who has
disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive attack on Iran."

"We're not stupid. Most of the members of the
fleet read well enough to know what is going on world-wise. We also realize that anyone who has
any doubts is in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them. Keep in mind
that most of the people I serve with are happy to be a part of the global war on terror. It's
just that the touch points are what we see since we are the ones out here who are supposedly implementing
this grand strategy. But when you liason withadministration officials who don't know that
Iranians don't speak Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second
thoughts about whether these Administration officials are even competent."

I asked her about the attack, how limited and
so forth.

"I don't think it's limited at all. We are shipping
in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive
and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after
it happens. And the consequences...whatever the consequences...they will have to be lived with.
Something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."

I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.

"I have become cynical only recently. I also don't
believe anyone will be able to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will
give the command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft willfly and people will die, and yet few of us here
are really able to cobble together a great explanation of why this is a good idea. Of course many of us
can give you the 4H Club lecture on democracy in theMid East. But if you asked any of the flight
officers whether they have a clear idea of what the goal of this strike is, your answer would sound like something
out of a think tank policy paper. But it's not like Kosovo or when we relieved the tsunami victims.
There everyone could tell you in a sentence what we were here doing."

"That's what's missing. A real sense of purpose.
What's missing is the answer to what the hell are we doing out here threatening this country with
all this power? Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell a sovereign nation
that they can't build a nuke. I mean the table got EF Hutton quiet. Not so much because the man
was asking a question that was off culture. But that he was asking a good question. In fact, the discussion
actually followed afterwards topside where someone in our group had to smoke a cigarette. The discussion
was intelligent but also in lowered voices. It's like we aren't allowed to ask the questions that we
always ask before combat. It's almost as if the average seaman or soldier is doing all the policy work."

She had to hang up. She left by telling me that
she believes the attack is a done deal. "It's only a matter of time before their orders come and they will
be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert. She said they were already practicing traps, FARP and
FAST." (Trapping is the act of catching the tension wires when landing on the carrier, FARP is Fleet Air
Combat Maneuvering Readiness Program- practicedogfighting- and FAST is Fleet Air Superiority
Training).

She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have
ever heard her sound off rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is something
rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are just hoping that the election
brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.

"Yes. We're gong to hit Iran, bigtime. Whatever
political discussion that are going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what's
going on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays.And I have a sick feeling about how it's all
going to turn out."